Tag Archives: weekly photo challenge

Been awhile since I did one of these photo challenges, hasn’t it? For some reason, the theme of “One” resonated.

My urban backyard bird feeders are often overrun by House Sparrows, one of the most undesirable species of feeder birds because they’re an “introduced” (invasive) species that crowds out the natives, like Black-capped Chickadees. At the peak of flock size each year, we see up to three dozen House Sparrows at a time, gobbling up all the seeds we put out for less obnoxious birds. This year, we have an anomaly — just one — a leucistic House Sparrow. Leucism is a genetic defect resulting in failure to produce any type of pigment, which is not the same as albinism (albinos are missing only melanin). Technically, our one genetic freak of a House Sparrow is only suffering from hypopigmentation, or partial leucism, but it’s enough to set him apart.

Leucistic Luke can’t win a House Sparrow popularity contest. He’s the only one with unusual pigmentation, so he’s been disqualified for being too different.

As you can see, Luke the Leucistic House Sparrow (I believe it’s male based on what markings remain; most of his plumage is bright white) is making off with a beakful of cracked corn. In the highly hierarchical House Sparrow society, leucism permanently places Luke at the bottom of the pecking order: the larger the black bib on a male House Sparrow, the higher his social standing. Although he’s accepted as part of his flock, Luke will be lucky if he ever gets a mate, and he’ll never be the boss bird.

While I’m not particularly keen on this little bugger either, he’s remarkable because he looks so different from his flock. And yet he’s the same as the rest of them — annoying, garrulous, and greedy. Kinda like those of us with mental quirks: a little different from the rest of the flock, but with nearly all the same fundamental needs, desires, ambitions, and abilities.

Here’s Luke with some of his flock – striking, isn’t he? That’s a normal male House Sparrow taking wing at left, and a female perched below.

Be kind to those who are different from you, friends — whether or not they had a choice in it, you can’t presume to know what crosses they may bear as a result of being different.

Events like the Boston Marathon bombing can easily convince us that there is little good left in our species. The media creates a culture of fear that further exacerbates a culture of disconnectedness that undermine us all in every way. We lose trust and hope and so much more.

We need to reverse this cultural trend. We need reassurance that will never be forthcoming from the media. We need evidence that our fellow citizens are not apathetic automatons, ignorant idiots, or greedy jerks, but rather are caring people like ourselves.

I loved this “random act of kindness” in the wake of the Boston Marathon tragedy. I was proud of the undergrad who created it (no self-respecting grad student would ever use a heart-shaped exclamation point) for refusing to accept those destructive cultural messages; perhaps not all of those privileged kids are sheep after all. I wondered how long it had been there, how many other people had seen it and smiled, and whether they found it as comforting as I did.

Well, haven’t done one of these in awhile. Or much blogging at all. I’m not going to apologize, though, as I’ve been seeing to my needs as best I can.

I think this is the third (fourth?) time I have a photo of meds for a weekly challenge. Hey, what can I say? It fits the theme, every time. This week’s photo challenge theme, color, is so open, it’s overwhelming. I tend to massively overthink things, and sometimes forcing myself to take the easy route (like just posting yet another photo of meds, and calling it good as both photo selection and blogging) is the best way forward.

Here’s to mediocrity. And being adequately medicated. I rather like the blend from white into yellowy-orangey colors in my current morning cocktail.

I haven’t done a Weekly Photo Challenge since being Freshly Pressed – keeping up with comments and continuing to write has pushed photography to the side (as usual, I’m afraid). But for some reason, this week’s photo challenge theme, Home, made me want to take these photos.

These specific ones.

Why? Got me. I guess it’s because home is where I feel free to do all that random quirky stuff that comes to mind, however unusual. Like my little winter window garden here. Most people chop up old veggies and just see the sprouting tops as waste, or at best, compost fodder. I see green things that just want a little water to grow into a fresh garden salad.

I’ve been craving that salad for awhile now. We eat local produce as much as possible, so winter means no fresh greens, other than the locally produced aeroponic lettuces at the Farmer’s Market. And the greens I can grow on my kitchen table. Monocultured lettuces that travel thousands of miles to the grocery store are the height of unsustainable consumption (yep, “organics” too, sorry folks).

home is where I feel free to do all that random quirky stuff

The cut vegetable tops include a beet, the inspiration for it all, and two radishes, all of which are growing quite nicely, and will make a tasty smattering of mini-greens. Just added today, a purple carrot and celeriac will also produce yummy edibles.

The thing that has fascinated me is that these root vegetables make no attempt to put down roots in order to grow afresh, like a cutting of most plants would. They just slurp up the water through their cut bases without soiling the water at all. Neat, eh?

Oh, how I hate this kind of theme. Weekly photo challenge, I am disappointed in you. But nonetheless, I’m playing along.

So, 2012… I wrote and defended a dissertation, traveled a lot*, did some backpacking, had a dental implant removed and reimplanted, and had about a zillion med changes. Plus a lot of other stuff in between.

I remember many excited Christmas mornings fraught with the painfully delightful anticipation of surprises under the tree. These days, it’s a little stack of boxes from Amazon on the dining table, which is about my speed – we do very understated holidays, which is good for both my sanity and our finances.

Instead of a photo reflecting a holiday theme, however, I have a different sort of surprise!

Not a great shot because it was taken through a window, but I love the movement.

I love watching birds, but they are very hard to photograph without top-notch equipment and more patience than I’ve yet cultivated. Most of my photos of birds are destined to be blurry rejects before I even put my finger on the shutter release.

Nonetheless, I loved this shot of a Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) surprised into flight. They’re nervous on the ground, out of their element, but this one was drawn by an irresistible heap of seeds beneath the feeder, left behind by melted snow.

Merry Christmas to those celebrating today, and a pleasant, peaceful Tuesday to all others. The days are now getting longer – something we can all celebrate!